The transfer of digital images from a user to a service provider is becoming more popular and more important. Typically, a digital camera user takes a plurality of digital images that are stored on a removable memory card.
These images are transferred from the memory card and stored, for example, on a hard drive or other non-volatile memory associated with the user's computer. Although these images are printed on a local printer, such as an ink jet printer, it is often simpler and less expensive for the user to have the images printed by a service provider. There are numerous services that are provided using digital images, such as storing, printing, or producing digital storage media (e.g. CD-R discs) with duplicate copies of the digital images. These services are provided at a remote location by a service provider. When services are ordered from a service provider, the images need to be uploaded using a channel such as the Internet.
Digital images, from digital cameras or scanned photographic film, are uploaded to a web site for viewing, as described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,666,215 to Fredlund, et al. Using a web browser, a group of these digital images are viewed and selected for printing, for example using the Kodak Photonet Service. The user can select the size of each print to be produced, and the quantity of prints to be made from each image.
Album pages are produced from digital images by arranging numerous images on the same page, as described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,004,061 to Manico, et al. These album pages are customized in terms of the size and arrangement of images on the page, the size and finish of the album pages, and the background color or patterns used.
Some web sites, such as the site provided by OFOTO, enable a user to upload a group of digital images for sharing with others over the Internet and for providing digital printing services. This site permits a user to obtain an account using his e-mail address as the account name, and to provide a password and address information. The user can then upload a group of images. After all the images are uploaded, the user can select particular images for printing or sharing with third parties designated by the user. The user can return to this site at a later date, enter their e-mail address and password, and upload or print additional images. However, in all cases, each full resolution image should be uploaded to the web site before it is selected for printing or sharing.
Many existing digital cameras provide images with over two million pixels. To obtain services using these images, many large image files should be transferred over a channel to the service provider. Frequently, the channel includes a telephone modem and the Internet. As a result of the relatively low data rate channel, it takes a long time to transfer a large number of digital image files. This makes it very inconvenient for users who want to transfer a large number of digital image files for printing, since they should wait until the images are uploaded before they can order services using these images.